1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a buckle made of synthetic resin and used for joining a belt incorporated in clothes, baggages, canteens and so forth and particularly to such a buckle equipped with a locking mechanism for locking the buckle in coupled disposition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical buckle with a locking mechanism of the type described is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 57-13305. The disclosed buckle generally comprises a plug having a pair of parallel resilient arms, a socket in the form of a rectangular casing for receiving the arms and a locking mechanism provided on the socket and being movable between unoperative position and operative position in which to lock the plug and socket in coupled disposition. The resilient arms have their respective outer edges tapered towards their distal ends. As being inserted into the socket, the resilient arms of the plug are gradually compressed toward each other against their resiliency and are finally, under their resiliency, spread into snapping engagement with shoulders proposed on the opposed sides of the socket, so that the plug and socket are coupled together. In this instance, the locking mechanism moves to interfere between the thus spread arms to thus prevent the spread arms from getting compressed toward each other so that the plug and the socket can be locked in coupled disposition.
However, the conventional buckle of the type described has several drawbacks. In this buckle, the plug and the socket cannot be uncoupled without compressing the resilient arms while or after removing the locking mechanism out of between the resilient arms. Either two actions by one hand or one action by two hands are, thus, required to uncouple the buckle, resulting in tedious manipulation.
Furthermore, in this conventional buckle, there is no means to retain the locking mechanism in locking disposition, so that the locking mechanism would be liable to get accidentally released from locking disposition under severe stresses exerted thereon.
Still furthermore, the socket of this buckle is constructed to house the locking mechanism therein, necessarily becoming the larger in size.